Wednesday, January 19, 2011

ECT: 3 Perspectives

“My Grandfather, who is now deceased, had several episodes of depression during which he was completely unable to function and had ideas that people were trying to steal his money as well as other delusions. Every time he was treated unsuccessfully with several different antidepressants before receiving ECT, which shocked him right out of his depression, as he described it. It worked like a charm every time.

I think ECT has gotten a bad rap. With new procedures for inducing anesthesia (they don’t strap you down and shock you like they do in the movies), it is a much simpler and better tolerated procedure than it used to be. And up to 80% of people experience improvement, which is a better response rate than for medication. Many of those who respond to ECT, like my grandfather, don’t respond to medications, and the long term effects on memory are slight at worst. The fact is, ECT is the most effective treatment for depression available. So if you or somebody you know has been on several medications and has not responded, you might want to consider it.”

"The term “Modified ECT” is used to distinguish the type of shock given since the early 1950s – with anesthesia, muscle paralyzers, and, usually, oxygenation – from the shock of the 1950s and 1940s.

In its first decade, when ECT was given without anesthesia, the electricity knocked the patient unconscious. Patients almost never had any memory of receiving the electric shock afterwards, because ECT compromised their ability to recall the recent past, so they were spared the horror of receiving the jolt. But patients’ bodies would convulse so hard during the ensuing seizure that bones were frequently broken, a problem that could only be partly alleviated by their being held down by several attendants. The force of the seizure also caused broken teeth and bitten tongues. The broken bones and teeth cost hospitals many lawsuits in the early years of ECT.

As early as 1938, curare – a drug originally used by Native Americans to make poison arrows – was used on ECT patients to paralyze their muscles during the seizures. Around 1952, it was found that the same effect could be achieved with a synthetic compound, succinylcholine, which has been routinely used ever since. Although the drug has made broken bones and teeth largely a thing of the past, it comes with its own cost: it paralyzes even the muscles used for breathing. Since patients can’t breathe on their own right before or during ECT, beginning in the 1950s they were often ventilated with pure oxygen during the brief period of the treatment. However, the primary reason for this use was not to prevent adverse effects on the brain from lack of oxygen (hypoxia), but to make it easier to trigger seizures and to make the seizures longer. In other words, oxygen actually fuels the seizure.

With the advent of muscle paralyzing drugs, it became necessary to anesthetize patients simply to spare them the terrifying feeling of being awake but unable to move or breathe. But again, the use of anesthesia comes at a cost. It raises the brain’s seizure threshold, its natural defense mechanism against convulsions. The higher the seizure threshold, the more electricity must be used to overcome the brain’s efforts to protect itself from harm.

Also, the use of anesthesia in and of itself is associated with a small risk of death; with ECT, since the anesthesia is repeated on a dozen or more occasions, this risk is additive. In short, far from making ECT safer, all of the modifications associated with so called modern shock have increased its risks and therefore its mortality rates. Doctors have known this since the 1950s."

Liz Spikol: ECT Survivor

And Please Watch Liz's Video To The End

Thank you all 3

1: A Psychiatrist

2: An American Citizen Who Has Been Defrauded Into a Serious Of Brutal & Vicious Physical Attacks

3: An American Citizen Who has Been Defrauded Into A Series Of Brutal & Vicious Physical Attacks

Amendment 8, US Constitution, 1791

Amendment 14, US Constitution 1868

Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Equal Under Law

What D Bunker is NOT:
D Bunker is Not African American.
D Bunker is Not Hispanic American.
D Bunker is Not a Jewish American.
D Bunker is Not a Gay American.
D Bunker is an American, Period. And this PO'd American has had 10 times more than twice too much of enough of Anyone claiming special rights for themselves over Anyone else. Far too many good men and women of all races, creeds and colors have given Everything and more to establish that None of Us are better than the Next of Us, AS LAW, to allow Any Ideology, especially one which is Wholly Smoke and Mirrors, to rule and ruin the lives of Any of us.